SNU students apparently don’t get diversity training:
“To avoid suspicious eyes, I used to walk all the way to a classroom instead of riding a shuttle bus.”
So said a 24-year-old graduate student at Seoul National University who also heads the Indian students’ association there.
He said he has suffered from unfounded rumors over sexual harassment perpetrated by a foreign student.
The rumors began at the on-campus Internet bulletin board “SNU Life.” One female student posted a message Nov. 24 that she was sexually harassed by a foreign student who looked Indian on a shuttle bus.
A Dec. 1 post by an anonymous user said she witnessed a foreign student sexually harassing a female student and took a picture of the alleged culprit.
As it would turn out, the culprit was a Pakistani student who’d harassed five female students… although this was OK, because it was all just one big cultural misunderstanding:
He told school officials that he inadvertently made mistakes due to Pakistani culture, which deems women inferior to men.
Indian students were pissed off, and rightfully so — according to the report, the university even advised them not to walk around the campus alone:
“The Indian students’ association felt deeply affronted by this incident,” said a university official. “On the day of the incident, the association launched a voluntary investigation to track the whereabouts of all Indian students and reported the results to school authorities.”
A 31-year-old Indian Ph.D student wrote on the Web that Indian students were greatly offended by responses from Korean students. “It’s wrong and hasty to lash out at all Indians on the comment that ‘He looked like an Indian,’ even though the investigation results have yet to come out,” he said.
“How would a Korean feel if he or she was wrongly blamed for a crime committed by a Chinese or Japanese abroad?”
Nevertheless, SNU will require barbarian students undergo sexual violence prevention classes from next year. Till now, only Korean students needed to attend the classes. The university also said it is making concrete efforts like fixing up foreign student with Korean student “mentors” to help them adjust and encouraging educational programs and clubs where Korean students can experience multiculturalism.
The Chosun Ilbo, too, reported the Dong-A Ilbo report.
(HT to GI Korea)
Marmot’s Note: SNU’s reaction is interesting — they moved quickly to make sexual violence prevention classes mandatory (a good move, probably), but you’d think if the backlash was serious enough for the university to warn Indian students to have a battle buddy when walking on campus that a little mandatory “diversity education” might be in order.
Well, at any rate, this helps answer the Hankyoreh Shinmun’s question from last year: “If a ‘Seung-hui Cho incident happended in Korea, how would we react?“
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Doesn’t bode all that well for incoming Indian English teachers now does it.
The issue’s not too different from what happened in Boston several times in the not-so-distant past, when you mixed legitimate questions of safety with a good dose of racial prejudice. One mom kills her kids and says “a black guy carjacked me” and the city makes a citywide search of all black men.
The question of guilt really isn’t the issue; it’s the matter of whether that’s a legitimate means of solving the problem, a fair use of majority power, and whether that’d even be effective.
In the case of SNU, further stigmatizing an entire group of kids on campus because somebody said the alleged culprit “looked Indian” is just plain racist. As a description to catch a culprit, surely it might be needed. But then going to target an entire group…come on.
And I wonder how much the additional factor of blaming “Pakistani culture” to wiggle out of possible serious punishment will play with the “Indian Students Association.” Pakistanis and Indians were never friendly on any college campus I ever attended, and I wonder how being part of a generic brown minority is sitting with the Indian students. Bet they’re pretty pissed, and possibly going through their own set of stereotypes about Pakistanis.
All in all, though — the exact wrong way to handle the situation on a college campus, and stir up the possibility of general violence in addition to the sexual harassment.
Irony and sarcasm aside, I’d like to read what Marmot really thinks should be done. As I understand it, he is highly skeptical of things like diversity education, stemming from multiculturalism.
Yup! Korea’s Best and Brightest!
Reach for the SKY!!!
“All in all, though — the exact wrong way to handle the situation on a college campus, and stir up the possibility of general violence in addition to the sexual harassment.”
So how did the university handled this situation in a wrong way to stir up the general violence and encourage sexual harassment?
Further proof that I should restrain myself from hypothetical comparisons. My opinion is that people tend to confuse themselves and their readers also.
“Pakistanis and Indians were never friendly on any college campus I ever attended, and I wonder how being part of a generic brown minority is sitting with the Indian students. ”
Ok but this I can compare to an actual situation in America where Korean -Americans and Japan Americans get along better than they otherwise would because we’re all viewed as Chinese. All of us being asian -american instead of koreans vs japanese helps matters I think.
You’re right — I am skeptical of diversity education and multiculturalism. In fact, if SNU were to start encouraging female students to, say, dress conservatively because short skirts might offend Pakistani students, I’d do my block, to use your charming turn of phrase. There’s a big difference, however, between expecting local students to bend over to respect foreign students’ cultural norms that don’t apply in the home country (which I don’t argue) and expecting local students to refrain from targeting entire ethnic communities because someone swarthy did something bad.
Well, I can’t argue for Mike, but I think what he’s trying to say is that by “punishing” foreign students in reaction to a racist student witch hunt while failing to adequately address the inexcusable behavior of certain students towards their more melanin-rich schoolmates might encourage similar behavior in the future.
RJKoehler wrote… “expecting local students to refrain from targeting entire ethnic communities because someone swarthy did something bad”
And forgive me if I have said this before, Robert, and I think I have, but did you not cast similar aspersions about the South Asian community (or at least the Allah-worshipping part) in a post about crime in Ansan? I also remember a pledge to back it up with some stats from the local police, but don’t remember seeing them. Apologies if I am wrong. I’m also remembering an article about the proclivities of certain dusky chaps from West Africa towards Korean women in your neck of the woods. Comments?
I don’t recall suggesting we target for vigilante violence/ill-treatment Muslims in Ansan or West Africans in Haebangchon, either. Or deport Japanese students because Chinese students ran riot in downtown Seoul.
Koreans live in a shithole but think they are the best
jeffable,
Koreans have this one advantage over the Japanese…
1/ they are generally taller and thus bigger people.
Japanese peeps are petite on the size chart. We’re not counting those overgrown pigs called Sumo warriors, who will likely die way earlier than their pretty ‘talent’ wives.
but, somehow have an overabundance of naturally big breasts, or so swears their porn industry. If you believe that, I got the proverbial bridge to sell you.
What happened, Wjk? You forgot to mention penis size.
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